PAS will never be able to form the federal government on its own as the Islamist party has limited popularity, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.
In an interview with Free Malaysia Today, the former prime minister said PAS' influence in Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu is not enough to send the party to Putrajaya.
"PAS won more than 40 parliamentary seats in the 2022 general election but that was not enough to become the government.
“(It) must work with others. If PAS wants to be the government, it has to find about 80 more seats to make up 112 (for a simple majority in the Dewan Rakyat).
"These 80 seats will come from the west coast (of the peninsula) and west coast people are not PAS supporters.
“So PAS, by itself, cannot rule the country. It has to work with non-Malays and Malays who are not PAS members (or supporters)," said Mahathir.
PAS has 43 and its partner, Bersatu, 25 of the 222 seats in parliament. The coalition government is formed of Pakatan Harapan, Barisan Nasional, and East Malaysia parties, who all together control 153 seats.
Mahathir was also asked about Umno, a party he led for 22 years until 2003.
He again blamed Najib Razak for the party's declining support base, saying Umno was corrupted by the former Pekan MP and that those remain in the party are in it for "the money”.
“They find that if you become an elected representative, you can get an income but not only that, you get business opportunities.
"We find them making money for themselves, not running the government,” he said.
Najib, who became the Umno president in 2009, is serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption in connection to the 1MDB financial scandal. The sentence has since been halved to six years. – June 29, 2024.
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